Faith Freedom International

[Ali Sina]

Islam allwos lying if the goal cannot be atained by saying the truth. Provide all the documents that testify to this fact.



Imam Ghazali's authority in Islam is indisputable. He says:

"Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praise worthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible " (Ref: Ahmad Ibn Naqib al-Misri, The Reliance of the Traveller, translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller , Amana publications, 1997, section r8.2, page 745).



Also the subject of Islamic Negationism can be entered here;


Negationism means the denial of historical crimes against humanity. It is not a reinterpretation of known facts, but the denial of known facts. Negationism is mostly identified with the effort at re-writing history.

[roshan]

http://www.bharatvani.org/books/negaind/

Negationism in India
Concealing the Record of Islam
-by Koenraad Elst

In this book, Elst refutes the lies of the negationists, and explains the reasons for the negationism.

[MarkT]

http://www.freep.com/news/religion/muslim27_20010427.htm

[CroMagnon]

Discrimination of the Arab-muslim invaders against the indigenous Berber population of North Africa:


As with other indigenous peoples in the world, Berbers are now protesting against the undervaluation of their culture and identity
http://i-cias.com/e.o/berbers.htm
Up until a few years ago being Berber was considered to be secondary (like in many societies in the West: Indians in America, Aboriginals in Australia, Lapps in Norway): in the most modernized society in North Africa, Tunisia, being Berber is synonymous with being an illiterate peasant dressed in traditional garments.


Today, Berber activists say the "Arabization" of Morocco has led to discrimination and has marginalized their people. But the government has resisted calls for recognition of Tamazight as an official language of Morocco
http://www.morocco.com/forums/showthread.php3?threadid=5770


Berber Intifada - North Africa
http://www.worldpress.org/0801nations2.htm


Protest against the Moroccan bureaucracy's refusal to allow parents to give their child an Amazigh name.
http://www.amazighonline.com/Human_rights/Morocco/protest_names_simane12-01_eng.html


(Algeria:) The Berbers and their language, Tamazight, are ignored and as such do not exist in the eyes of the state.
http://www.workerspower.com/wpglobal/algeriamay2k1.html


(Lybia:) The current regime is practicing all kinds of violations, permanence of oppression, and denial. All sorts of Tamazight activities are subject to oppression and denial, including cultural activities. Even Tamazight names for Imazighen children is prohibited and forbidden.
http://216.239.39.100/search?


World Amazigh Action Coalition

(Morocco:) Berbers demand 'native rights'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/733403.stm


Protests are growing in Morocco over the authorities' policy of Arabisation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1097087.stm


The authorities say Arabisation is necessary for the sake of national unity, but the Berbers pay a heavy price for it.
The insistence on using only Arabic in schools leads many Moroccan Berber children to drop out because they cannot understand the lessons. Illiteracy in Morocco is around 56%.

Today, there are substantial Berber populations in both Algeria and Morocco, plus smaller numbers in Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

In Algeria, about 30% of the population consider themselves Berber. In Morocco the figure is 40%, though many more have Berber ancestry.

Determined efforts to Arabise them have largely failed - as have Berber attempts to win recognition. Some of the official discrimination is unbelievably petty: in Morocco, for instance, parents are not allowed to name a child Jugurtha or Massinissa.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,529734,00.html
_________________
Sheikh Ahmad al Kat'ani:
"every hour 667 muslims are converting to christianity"

[yeezevee]

http://www.metimes.com/2K2/issue2002-33/methaus.htm

Here are some articles which relate to freedom of expression but were censored In MiddleEast Times

[Reza Humanist]

Were the Palestinians expelled?

http://store.yahoo.com/netanyahu/werpalex.html

[Reza Humanist]

MYTHS AND POLITICS
THE TOLERANT PLURALISTIC ISLAMIC SOCIETY:
ORIGIN OF A MYTH

http://mypage.bluewin.ch/ameland/LectureE1.html

[Ali Sina]

Taqayyah (concealment, deception or lying)

http://www.stormoskenejtak.dk/british/taqija.htm

http://www.freeman.org/m_online/dec97/phares.htm

http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/T/taqiya.html

http://www.answering-islam.org/PQ/ch1-index.htm#ch1

http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter6b/1.html
http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter6b/2.html
http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter6b/3.html

http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/K/kithman.html

http://ismaili.net/histoire/history04/history405.html

Lying:
http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/L/lying.html

http://islamicweb.com/beliefs/cults/shia_taqayyah.htm

http://www.answering-ansar.org/answers/creed_of_shia_explained/chap7.htm
_________________
Doubt everything, find your own light!

[yeezevee]

Interesting series from Arab News on Mr. Mohammed's life.

The Life of The Prophet Muhammad; by Leila Azzam and Aisha Gouverneur

http://www.arabnews.com/Prophet/Intro.asp



http://answering-islam.org/Index/L/lying.html

[yeezevee]

DOGS in KORAN
The Connivaing Islamic stories for Western Audience; right from Arizona: MASJID TUCSON; United Submitters International ; PO Box 43476 ;Tucson AZ 85733-3476; Tel/Fax: (520) 323 7636

http://www.submission.org/pets/dogs2.html

[yeezevee]

Listen to the Q&As of modern deceptive stupid Islamic Intelligent Imam; Mr. Mishary Rashid Al-Efasi

http://www.azadar.com/~lonzoned/

[Ali Sina]

Lying in Islam
By Abdullah Al Araby
http://www.islamreview.com/articles/lying
_________________
Doubt everything, find your own light!

[dontkillme]

The Muslim Students Association at USC have published their explanations of why some comments about Islam are misconceptions.

Their explanations often seem less convincing than the misconceptions.

Anti-democracy and anti-human rights?

They quote [42:36-38] (which I find virtually incomprehensible) to support their suggestion that Islam is democratic or supportive of human rights.

The wording starts with saying that whatever you are given in life is less important than Allah, and then says that really pious Muslims can "take counsel amongst themselves" and then it ends with another comment that doesn't fit.

So what does that mean? If Allah had meant 'democracy' he would have known the word as it had been practiced in some Greek city states about a thousand years earlier.

The actual phrase sound to me more like.... the clerics shall rule because they will be the only ones who fit that description.

Islam is pro-Slavery?

The Muslim Students Association claims that the Prophet (pbuh) was against slavery which is shown by his repeated comments about releasing slaves. Well, most of those are punishments for example if you kill someone by accident you should release a MUSLIM slave. (Note, not just any slave.) Meanwhile vast numbers of Sura refer to what you can do with slaves including having sex with them even if they are already married. AND it is taken for granted that you will take slaves when you attack neighbouring areas.

What seems to be of interest here is that MUSLIMS should not really be slaves, only non-believers. (Plato said the same about Greeks a thousand years earlier and he was all for slavery.)

Women are inferior to men?

The Muslim Students Association give a couple of quotes were men and women are not differentiated such as [4:124] If any do deeds of righteousness - be they male or female - and have faith, they will enter Paradise, and not the least injustice will be done to them. and [33:35], but leaves out the repeated comment that you have to have two women witnesses or 1 man as witness and that women are too stupid to be witnesses on their own, or that a woman who disobeys her husband goes to hell, or that a husband must beat her if she disobeys and that being alone she cannot bear witness against him and a woman raped cannot testify against her attacker.

[4:3] If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice.

Of course you can always marry a slave girl as long as you get permission from her OWNER. (004.025)
And you can marry a woman who is already married as long as you took her as loot after a Jihad. (004.024 )

...and how about 004.016 Two men guilty of 'lewdness' should be punished if they don't repent. Whereas... 004.015 A woman guilty of 'lewdness' is placed under house arrest until death.

How equal is that?



Islam tolerates the killing of innocents?

The Muslim Students Association say not because [17:33] Nor take life - which Allah has made sacred - except for just cause. And if anyone is slain wrongfully, we have given his heir authority (to demand retaliation or to forgive)...

But what about search out the non-believer wherever his is and kill him?

and as we see from 004.092 That is only really believers who should not be killed.


Islam is pro-Terrorist?

The Muslim Students Association say that "Muslim terrorist" is almost an oxymoron. The reality is far from it as we can read in the Qu'ran in such peaceful statements as:
004.101 the unbelievers are your open enemy. 005.033 which says crucify the non-Muslims, 008.039 fight them until they all convert. 008.059 Don't let non-Muslims think they can get away with anything.
...and worst of all the very Muslim Terrorists Charter... 008.060 Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror
into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah
doth know.

Oxymoron, I think not. Literal follower of Qu'ran = Terrorist is more accurate.

Amazingly the Muslim Students Association quotes the following as an explanation of JUST war: [4:52:65] Narrated Abu Musa: A man came to the Prophet and asked, "A man fights for war booty; another fights for fame and a third fights for showing off; which of them fights in Allah's Cause?" The Prophet said, "He who fights that Allah's Word (i.e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah's Cause."

The Muslim Students Association suggests that this means fighting when people are grossly deprived of freely hearing or practicing Islam.

NO IT DOES NOT. It justifies war booty, war for fame or war for showing off just as long as it shows Islam to be superior.

Think about this. As long as you demonstrate that Islam is more powerful, in charge, superior, you can go to war and steal, make a name for yourself or lord it over others.

Again this is a TERRORISTS CHARTER.

And again they quote something contradictory ""If we insist on calling Islamic jihad a defensive movement,..." (implying that of course it is NOT defensive).

Oddly the Qu'ran has ample examples of calling to 'fight' or 'struggle' in the name of Allah, but there aren't many mentions of 'defending'. Why would that be I wonder.

Islam is anti-justice?

On the judicial system again we are given the strangest of Qu'ran quotes to show how fair the system is....

[2:178] ...the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman....

and

[42:40-43] The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree):

So what do you think that means? Let us bear in mind that the Qu'ran is obviously written to MEN. It often says "you" and then talks of wives. When talking of a woman it says "A woman.." So from the above if you (a man) are injured you can cause equal injury. Let us imagine that some man slaps your wife. Now what can you do? Well "woman for woman" so my interpretation is that you can slap his wife. If he kills one of your slaves you can kill one of his slaves. (Perhaps I misinterpret?)

Islam prohibits freedom of religion?

They quote [2:256] which says that there is no compulsion in religion, but any student of the Qu'ran who reads past the second chapter sees almost nothing but compulsion, threats of terror to the non-believer, slaughter, hunting down of non-believers, taking of captives, humiliation and the simple choice: Convert or Die.

Islam is intolerant of other religions?

The quote is The Messenger of Allah (saas) said, "One who kills a non-Muslim person under protection (Arabic: dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise."

Note that there is no judicial punishment here for killing a non-Muslim even though this person is under so called 'protection'. What we have here is a removal of reward in the after life for breaking a treaty. So breaking your word is a bigger sin than killing a non-Muslim.

Same in their next quote: Whoever hurts a non-Muslim person under protection, I am his adversary, and I shall be an adversary to him on the Day of Resurrection.

They go on to say "In short, Islam is intolerant of false ideas, however it is tolerant of the people who hold to those ideas."

Yeah, sure, anything you say. Let us remember that the Qu'ran is full of statements about the need to search out and kill the non-believer. Such as:

008.038 Say to the Unbelievers, they'll be forgiven if they become Muslims, but look at what we did to others who refused.

008.039 fight them until they all convert.

008.041 You only keep 80% of what you steal in war.

008.058 If you fear treachery cancel your treaty.

008.059 Don't let non-Muslims think they can get away with anything

008.060 ....strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah...

008.065 Rouse the believers to fight and you can defeat 10 times as many because non-believers are stupid.

008.067 Take no prisoners until you have conquered.

008.074 True believers go into exile to fight for Allah. Their sins are forgiven and they are rewarded.

and on and on and on......


003 On the day of the great pilgrimage TREATIES with pagans will be cancelled

005 the rest will be hunted down and killed using any trick of war and only spared if they convert.

and on and on and on....

039 If you don't go to war Allah will punish you

041 Go lightly or heavily armed and fight for Allah

044 Real believers don't avoid fighting

and finally (insha Allah) we have....

Islam is fatalistic and creates inaction and poverty?

this is another supposed misconception that Islam teaches that everything is fated by Allah. Bizarrely the only quotes the authors can find against that are [16:35] and [43:20] Both of which are about non-Muslims using the excuse of Islamic fate to explain why they haven't prayed. Therefore both of these quotes imply that the Qu'ran knows that it teaches fate.

In fact there are two contradictory versions of Islamic fate defined in the Qu'ran the first is exemplified by the final statement by the Muslim Students Association which is

"Anything good in this document is from Allah, while everything bad in it is from us."

Which is from the Qu'ran and means that humans can only do bad things themselves, while all good comes from Allah (hardly an encouragement to action is it?), but even that is then contradicted later in the Qu'ran where it states that everything that happens is directly because of the will of Allah.

So at most we have the free will to do bad things as long as it accords with the will of Allah.

So is this a religion that you want running the world?

<font size=-1>
The document referred to is at
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/notislam/misconceptions.html
This contains 10 so called misconceptions of which about 4 are misconceptions: 1. Derivation of the word "Islam". 4 Islam is only suited to Arabs (in reality it is well suited to no one at all) 5 Islam rejects Jesus (well he's in the Qu'ran, but he isn't the Jesus the Christians know) 6 Islam worships Mohamed. (No but what Mohamed said is what millions of Muslims do... or be murdered) 9, Islam is Afro-centric.

On the other hand the IMPORTANT ones are all true:
2 Islam is against human rights, against democracy and pro-slavery.
3.Women are inferior
7. Islam is spread by force, uses terror, kills innocents and is anti-justice.
8 Islam is intolerant of other religions (and totally intolerant of non-believers)
10. Islam produces lazy fatalistic poverty.


Some of the quotes used in this page have been paraphrased to make them shorter and simpler. If you don't believe simply read the Qu'ran and make up your own mind.</font>

[dontkillme]

Discussion of quotes from

<h1>Women in the Quran and the Sunna</h1> written by
Prof. Abdur Rahman I. Doi Professor and Director, Center for Islamic Legal Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaira, Nigeria

"The Shari'ah regards women as the spiritual and intellectual equals of men."

Odd, because the Qu'ran makes it clear that women are too stupid to be witnesses unless they have another women who is also a witness to remind the first when she makes a mistake whereas men can be sole witnesses.

"The main distinction it makes between them is in the physical realm based on the equitable principle of fair division of labor. It allots the more strenuous work to the man and makes him responsible for the maintenance of the family."

It also allots to the man the task of beating the wife if she doesn't obey and in terms of spiritual equality it is only she who goes to hell for disobedience.

"It allots the work of managing the home and the upbringing and training of children to the woman, work which has the greatest importance in the task of building a healthy and prosperous society."

But in terms of virgin daughters it is only the father who can force them into marriage against their will, and in terms of managing the home the slave girls can be forced to have sex with the father, but the mother has no rights to force slaves to please her.

"It is a fact, however, that sound administration within the domestic field is impossible without a unified policy. For this reason the Shari'ah requires a man, as head of the family, to consult with his family and then to have the final say in decisions concerning it. In doing so he must not abuse his prerogative to cause any injury to his wife. Any transgression of this principle involves for him the risk of losing the favor of Allah, because his wife is not his subordinate but she is, to use the words of the Prophet (peace be upon him), 'the queen of her house', and this is the position a true believer is expected to give his wife."

So why does a disobedient wife go to hell? Why does the Qu'ran say first admonish her, then refuse to share her bed and then beat her?

"In contrast to these enlightened teachings of Islam in respect of women, Western talk of women's liberation or emancipation is actually a disguised form of exploitation of her body, deprivation of her honor, and degradation of her soul!"

The West has problems trying to prevent men beating their wives or girlfriends, but at least the laws TRY to protect them by making such attacks illegal and allowing wives to testify whereas the Qu'ran makes beatings legal and bans testimony from a lone woman.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/womenquransunnah.html.
_________________
Why can't any of these God's write clearly? Even self-build furniture has clearer rules.

[dontkillme]

Qur'an 60:8 is used as proof of the goodness of Islam in Chapter 8: The Muslim Woman And Her Neighbours of The Ideal Musilimah.

"Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for [your] Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loves those who are just." ((Qur'an 60:)

Statements with lots of negatives in them are hard to understand. Here is my attempt to understand this one.

Allah forbids you not = Allah doesn't encourage you to he just doesn't forbid you...

"..with regard to those who fight you not for [your] Faith nor drive you out of your homes, " = with regard to those who are peaceful neighbours

from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loves those who are just." = from being a good neighbour.

(Qur'an 60:

So let me see if I have this....

If your non-Muslim neighbours are okay, Allah allows you to be a good neighbour to them.

This obviously implies an assumption that for some reason you wouldn't be a good neighbour to non-Muslims, because Allah simply "doesn't forbid" your being a good neighbour. He doesn't "command you to be a good neighbour" he doesn't even "recommend" that you be a good neighbour, he doesn't suggest in any way that you "should" be a good neighbour he simply doesn't "forbid" you being a good neighbour.

Therefore all that (Qur'an 60: is saying is that if you want to be nice to nice (non-Muslim) neighbours you won't be punished for it, but there is no obligation on you to be nice to them. (And if they say something against Islam then you are prohibited from being nice to them because this could be classified as 'fighting your faith')

But (Qur'an 60: is used as proof of the goodness of Islam in Chapter 8: The Muslim Woman And Her Neighbours of The Ideal Musilimah.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/womeninislam/idealmuslimah/chapter8.html.

[dontkillme]

In
<h1>"Human Rights In Islam </h1>
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E Brochure Series; No. 7 ) "
which is available on-line the authors state:

Let not detestation for a people move you not to be equitable; be equitable - that is nearer to God-fearing." (5:

and yet they don't quote the Qu'ran with its explanation that Jews are a cursed people who (except for a few) are untrustworthy and constantly plotting against you.

They say that human rights are granted by God and that governments are below this.

A message not unlike that told by Christian Kings that they ruled in the name of God and as his instrument or that the Bishop of Rome was the representative of God on earth.

They write that the rights endowed by God apply to all BELIEVERS,

not you may note to all PERSONS.

These God given rights overrule any human agreements such as the UN declaration or the American Bill of Rights.

So whatever was agreed 1400 years ago can't be changed or improved by mere humans.

The Security Of Life And Property:
...the Prophet (Farewell Hajj) said: "Your lives and properties are forbidden to one another till you meet your Lord on the Day of Resurrection."

But the authors don't point out that this only applies to BELIEVERS. They can loot anything else that they like.

The Prophet has also said about the dhimmis (the non-Muslim citizens of the Muslim state): "One who kills a man under covenant (i.e., dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise."

You note that there is to be no punishment on this earth for killing a dhimmi, and there is no mention that being a dhimmi contradicts the previous statement that "men are substantially the same and no tangible and actual distinction can be made among them, on account of their accidental differences such as nationality, color or race. "

The Protection Of Honor:
The Holy Quran lays down:
"You who believe, do not let one (set of) people make fun of another set."

except of course for the Jews which the Qu'ran despises, and the Desert Arabs that the Qu'ran criticizes, and the non-believers for whom the Qu'ran advocates death.

"Do not defame one another." Remember only applies to BELIEVERS, the others have no rights.

"Do not insult by using nicknames."
"Do not backbite or speak ill of one another."
(49:11-12) Except for cursing the Jews, the dhimmi, etc..

Sanctity And Security Of Private Life:
The Quran has laid down the injunction:
"Do not spy on one another." (49:12)
"Do not enter any houses unless you are sure of their occupant's consent." (24:27) Except of course a house owned by a dhimmi in which you can enter and stay for 3 days without permission or longer if you are feeling under the weather, and of course if it is the house of a non-believer who isn't under the yoke as a dhimmi you can do whatever the hell you like, burn it down, steal everything and rape women children and animals.... oh, I am not sure if raping animals is permitted.

The Security Of Personal Freedom:
no citizen read believer can be imprisoned unless his guilt has been proven in an open court. To arrest a man only on the basis of suspicion and to throw him into a prison without proper court proceedings and without providing him a reasonable opportunity to produce his defence is not permissible in Islam. but a woman can't give evidence unless supported by at least 1 other witness, so any man can accuse any woman and his word will be taken as true and she will not be allowed to testify. A woman who commits 'lewdness' gets life in prison, a man doing the same has to repent.

The Right To Protest Against Tyranny:
This only restricts governments from going against Islam (identical to the Jewish system), but you can't go against Islam - that is an immediate death sentence and your right to object to government is only if it is going against Islam. So really this isn't a right against tyranny any more than the USSR which gave its people the right to object against capitalists.

Freedom Of Expression:
Islam gives the right of freedom of thought and expression to all citizens of the Islamic state on the condition that it should be used for the propagation of virtue and truth and not for spreading evil and wickedness. The Islamic concept of freedom of expression is much superior to the concept prevalent in the West
What a joke! Note: Only believers have this right, they can only express what Islam regards as virtuous, and this so called 'right' which is no more than saying that believers can repeat the party line is claimed to be superior to western rights where (in theory) you can discuss and criticise anything. In the USSR you could complain as much as you wanted to about America.

Freedom Of Association:
Islam has also given people the right to freedom of association and formation of parties or organizations. This right is also subject to certain general rules. Certain rules? Pray tell... could these possibly be that you can't do anything that the clerics dislike, you can't discuss favorably any other religion or discuss the idea of a secular state or the errors in the Qu'ran... or...or...Oh yeah, you should never have Jews or Christians as friends or advisors. So you can only associate with other Muslims... is that freedom?

Freedom Of Conscience And Conviction:
Islam has laid down the injunction:
"There should be no coercion in the matter of faith." (2:256)
HAH! So how come the Qu'ran states that the non-believers should be searched out wherever they are and killed? Why is so much of the Qu'ran concerned with fighting, converting, enslaving, subjugating or killing the non-believers? Why indeed is there the concept of dhimmis who are held under treaties allowing them to live rather than as equal human societies free to do as they please?

Protection Of Religious Sentiments:
Along with the freedom of conviction and freedom of conscience, Islam has given the right to the individual that his religious sentiments will be given due respect and nothing will be said or done which may encroach upon his right.
WHAT??? So a Muslim can go on TV these days and say, "On some matters I believe that Mohamed (pbuh) and the Qu'ran are wrong." or a Hindu would be welcome in Saudi Arabia explaining points of theology to the pilgrims in Mecca? Saying anything even remotely light heartedly amusing about any of these things causes riots and multiple murder. Who are you trying to kid?

Equality Before Law:
Islam gives its citizens the right to absolute and complete equality in the eyes of the law. Warning: Believers only may apply. Women are only half citizens under this provision... daughters only to inherit half what sons inherit, women have to given evidence in pairs, but men can do so alone, a raped woman cannot complain without a male witness, a man can have 4 wives, but a woman can only have 1 husband...although if she is a married slave she can still be forced into a relationship with her owner even though he already has his full 4 wives....etc etc

(Islam) invites mankind to move on to a plane of existence where, by reason of his inner excellence, man can realize the ideal of the Brotherhood of man.
and anyone who disagrees will be murdered and will go to hell.


www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/humanrelations/humanrights/

[dontkillme]

The Qu'ran tells us that Allah went to the Jews with His Muslim plans, but the Jews (Moses) etc took the laws, put the words in the wrong order and generally forgot that they were Muslims.

(Of course Moses probably had difficulty with Allah's classical Arabic accent, and we have to guess that when he was trying to spell A-L-L-A-H someone knocked over his Scabble board losing all the vowels because he ended up with YHWH.... which is said to be an acronym ofr Your Hatred Wounds Humans)

Allah went back again some thousand or so years later, again to the Jews (Jesus) and yet again not only do most of the jews reject this approach but those who accepted once more messed up, forgetting that they are Moslims and calling themselves Christians.

No wonder on the third trip to the semitic tribes Allah avoids the Jews and picks an Arab and he reminds this Arab over and over "Don't trust the Jews"

Is this because Allah learnt from his first two tries that the Jews couldn't be trusted? Did the Jews screw him over? Were the Jews smarter than Allah?

Or was Allah incapable of forseeing that the actions of the Jews? Was Allah incapble of seeing what is in men's hearts?

If those are the only two possibilities then either Allah isn't very smart or he doesn't have the capabilities claimed in the Qu'ran of seeing into men's hearts.

Either way its a serious contradiction in the Qu'ran which implies that Allah (as defined) does not exist and Islam is false.

[dontkillme]

To be fair let me bash Christianity, but while doing this remember that Jesus was a prophet chosen and fortold by Allah, if Jesus was not the Christ (as described in the Qu'ran) this affects Islam as well as Christianity.

Forty two historical writers from around year 1 fail to mention Christ. Any mentions that do exist in their writings only appeared several hundred years later and are assumed to have been early church forgeries.

No mention of the miracles and no mention of the daytime darkening of the
sun as described in the bible.

Some of these writers did write extensively about other jews of the time.

The early church writers around the year 200 do not mention the existance of any descriptions of Christ written by his followers, but they do quote from
the old testament. The inference being that at that time no such gospels
existed. (and yet Allah gave the Gospels to Christ)

Many other Biblical characters performed miracles (including Satan)

The return of Christ and the end of the world were to be within the lifetime
of the original followers.

His 'brethren' and his neighbours did not believe in him.

There is no historical record of any of the apostles or of their supposed
executions in various parts of the Roman empire.

In the bible Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but he is called Jesus of Nazareth
so named because he was born in Nazareth, but there is no historial record
of there being any such town at that time.

There never was a Jewish fortelling of a 'virgin birth' for the Christ, but
the Christ would be a descendent of David and be called Emanuel, which Jesus was not.

Going to Bethlehem to pay taxes has no historical validity and so Joseph and Mary would not have been there seeking somewhere to sleep. (According to Mathew Jesus was born in a house, not a stable.) There were no "inns" in Bethlehem.

According to Luke there is no mention of a star and no 3 Kings, but 3
shepherds and a heavenly choir.

No historical record of thousands of babies being murdered by Herod, even
though his other actions are well documented.

The definition of what the Jewish Messiah would do, when he would arrive and
what the result would be do not match the story of Jesus. Jesus was not the
Jewish Messiah.

The story of Christ is virtually the same as the much earlier story of
Buddha. The beliefs of Christianity are virtually the same as the much older
Zoroaster. The sayings of Christ are roughly the sayings of the earlier
Confucious. The festivities like Mithra, its history from Adonis, Tammouz,
Tamzi, or Du-zi, everlasting life from Osiris and Horus the son, and so
on... including the inventions of Plato and Pythagoras.

A favorite quote:

"This is one of their [the Christians'] rules. Let no man that is learned,
wise, or prudent come among us: but if they be unlearned, or a child, or an
idiot, let him freely come. So they openly declare that none but the
ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, women, and children,
are fit disciples for the God they worship." Celsus (from the time the 4
Gospels appeared).


Christisms:

"Be not afraid of them that kill the body" (Luke xii, 4).

"After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry,
because the Jews sought to kill him" (John vii, 1).

'''''

"They that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew xxvi, 52).

"He that hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one" (Luke xxii,
36).

'''''

"All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"
(Matthew xxi, 22).

"Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath"
(Matthew xiii, 12).

'''''
"As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the
grave shall come up no more." -- Job (vii, 9).

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his
thoughts perish." -- Psalms
(cxlvi, 4).

"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts.... As one dieth,
so dieth the other, yea, they have all one breath, so that man hath no
preeminence over a beast." -- Ecclesiastes (iii, 19).

Those 3 Biblical quotations tell us that we do NOT have immortal souls, but...


"For the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice, and shall
come forth" (John v, 28, 29).


'''''
"Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" (1
Peter iii, 13.)

"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth"
(Hebrews xii, 6).

'''''

"There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,
but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time" (Mark x, 29, 30).

"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"
(2 Tim. iii, 12).

'''''

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew xi, 30).

"Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake" (Luke xxi, 17).

'''''
"Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor
yet for your body, what ye shall put on" (Matthew vi 25). "Take therefore no
thought for the morrow" (34).

"The Son of Man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, behold a gluttonous
man and a
winebibber" (Luke vii, 34).
'''''
"Servants [slaves], be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to
the good and
gentle, but also to the froward" (1 Peter ii, 1.

'''''
Celibacy, and even self-mutilation are preferable to marriage (Matthew xix,
10-12)
'''''
Peace on earth and goodwill to all men.....

"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay, but
rather division for from henceforth there shall be five in one house
divided, three against two, and two against three. (Luke xii, 51-53).

'''''
"Honor thy father and thy mother."

"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law"
(Matthew x, 34, 35). "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple"
(Luke xiv, 26).

'''''
"Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other" (Luke vi,
29).

"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father"
(Matthew x,33).

'''''
"What you do not like when done to yourself do not to others." Predates
Christ:
by Confucius, Pittacus, Thales, Sextus, Isocrates and Aristotle.
'''''
"It is more blessed to give than to receive" : Epicurus
'''''
"love your enemies": Diogenes and Laertus,

'''''

Christ tells us to not wash our hands before eating, but to wash our feet
afterwards.

'''''


Good decent bible folk:

"Abraham (Incest and adultery) married his sister and seduced her handmaid;
Jacob, (Bigamist and adulterer), seduced two of his housemaids; Judah sex
with his daughter-in-law; David was a polygamist, an adulterer, a robber and
a murderer, Solomon (adulterer) against his thousand wives and concubines,
Rachab, a common prostitute; Ruth, who, instead of marrying one of her
cousins, went to bed with another of them; and Bathsheba, an adulteress,
married the murderer of her first husband, while others are declared to have
been too vile to even name."

""
and for those who still believe....

"incurably religious" Thomas Edison



from:

The Christ A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence
by John E. Remsberg http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/rmsbrg00.htm

The winter celebration used to be "the Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun"

Ecclesiastes 3:2-3 ("a time to be born , and a time to die...a time to kill,
and a time to heal...") versus Ex. 20:13 ("Thou shalt not kill")

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/errancy/issues/iss192.htm#Somefinalwords3

[CroMagnon]

Remarkable islamic quotes
from a less advertised, hidden side of Islam
as compared to some well known islamic claims
http://whatsthisthen.netfirms.com/islamicquotes.html
_________________
Sheikh Ahmad al Kat'ani:
"every hour 667 muslims are converting to christianity"

[CroMagnon]

Censored articles from
the Middle East Times
http://www.metimes.com/cens/censored.htm

[Piggy]

The trojan-horse revisited. (Transplanting Islam)

Read: (the link is from here:http://www.islaminalaska.com/hatredinthenameofAllaah.html)

http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/articles/article18.htm

The Fight for the Soul of Islam in America - By Yahiya Emerick
If you're like me, you really care about Islam becoming a permanent part of the fabric of this nation.

You don't want to be the last Muslim in your family tree either and you're convinced that Islam would make everyone around you much happier if they only gave it a try.

You or I may not always be the most perfect Muslims, but we do work at it and we genuinely hope in the mercy and forgiveness of Allah.

Now if you get around, like I do, you've been to a variety of Masjids, conferences, gatherings and dinners. I say a variety because the style and substance between one and the next can be like night and day. You probably also have seen at least one copy of the several types of Muslim magazines that are in circulation. It would be hard not to given that the people who publish them usually give them away free at every gathering they can find. (No wonder no one subscribes, they always get them free.)

You've probably also heard a lot of different types of scholars speak and heard a lot of different theories and concepts presented for how to live Islam. Some you may agree with, others you may not. But isn't it true that there's always something going on somewhere, whether it's in the Masjids, universities, organizations, magazines or centers?
There's always something going on and always some idea being advanced.
And if you've noticed, as I surely have, there is quite a lot of range in the opinion and presentation style. So much so that you would think different religions were being taught at each function!
Some conferences, magazines or Masjids make you love Islam while others make you feel like grabbing your Eman and running away and hiding. Amazing isn't it?

What of organizations? The same holds true. There are a zillion Muslim groups operating in North America right now.
So many, in fact, that most everyday Muslims don't know who they should support and thus remain dormant. Part of the problem which is fueling this tendency to inaction is that we often don't see the members of many of the organizations practicing or implementing any meaningful sense of Islamic brotherhood, at least in the way you or I have read it's supposed to be done according to the Qur'an and Sunnah.

In fact, we so often complain about there being too many Islamic groups who don't reflect Islamic teachings that it can be quite un-nerving. But we have to redefine this lament in order to get at the real crux of the problem. The real issue is not that there are too many Islamic groups out there- hey, the more Islamic groups the merrier! Neither is the issue whether or not the groups adhere to Islamic standards, because if you're a Muslim, you work for Allah regardless of how helpful the people around you are.
The real problem is that each group seems to teach something different or to present Islam in their own, narrow way, to the exclusion of the rest of the Ummah. They give us their interpretation of what the perfect Muslim does and then they ardently try to get everyone else to follow this interpretation. Other Islamic groups, who may lean in a different way, are then labeled "weak" Muslims, mis-guided or even kuffar. Thus the wall of disrespect.

If you're interested in participating in the building of a healthy, self-perpetuating Islamic community in North America, then you probably look upon all this foolishness and sigh in sorrow. But if you're really an optimist, as Islam tries to get you to be, then you just don't complain about something, you try to understand the problem and then work towards a solution.
So how can we learn how to cure this problem and how can we know which direction for change we must take? To do that then, requires a little analysis. So let's go.

First, we have to recognize that Islam in America is probably closer to the true teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, may he be blessed, than at any other time in the last five hundred years. No, I'm not saying that Muslims are better believers today. I'm saying that the access to pure Islamic teachings and the ability to live them to their fullest moral and social potential is more pronounced here, in North America, than in Iraq, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria or anywhere else.

The Muslim world: forget about it. It's too bogged down in stupidity, corruption, nationalism, racism and every other kind of ailment you can imagine. The light of Islam has been put out in the Muslim world and has been reborn in the heart of the secular, faithless West. (Allah is truly great!)
There is nothing you or I can do to improve the Muslim world. Nothing. Just accept it and get over it. Part of being a Muslim is to choose your battles wisely. Even the Prophet left Mecca when he saw no more change could come. In the open and cosmopolitan society of Medina, the focus of the Muslims was in building a solid community which could live in relative safety. The Medinan situation is where the ideal of the community took form and flowered. We are now in the Meccan times today in the Muslim world and Islam, like so many Muslims, has made Hijrah to safer lands where it can work on regaining its strength.
Think about it: living in the West is the real test of a believer. You're living Islam in a place where there are no restrictions against your 'Ibadah. No one will prevent you from praying here, no one will make you shave your beard or remove your Hijab. (If someone tries, you can take them to court!) No one will make you eat pork or renounce your beliefs. No one will make you stare like a wolf at a pretty girl. No one will make you take drugs or alcohol. No one can make you lie, cheat or steal. No one will make you open a liquor store or accept interest money. No one will prevent you from living near the Masjid, etc... America today is literally Sodom and Gomorra: a place where anything, including Islam, is allowed. You are like Prophet Lut in the midst of the pit of sin. No one made him change his religion. He prayed and taught whatever he wanted. Most people just refused to listen, that's all.
The whole matter comes down to you. It's you who will either grow in strength and Taqwa or sink into depravity and wish for your endless desires to be filled. If a person accepts Islam, they can develop themselves to their fullest moral potential even while surrounded by the most alluring temptations. The advantage for Muslims here is that no one can legally oppose you and you have access to the most accurate Islamic information from books, to audios and videos to whatever. And you don't have the stupid village traditions about wily jinns, evil eyes and palm reading and the like to dilute your knowledge as they have in virtually all Muslim countries.
So now that we know that the Islamic potential is the greatest here, and that most of the Islamic program can flourish pretty much unimpeded, what currents are going on among the Muslims of North America and what forces are tugging at them. Well, to be blunt, we have a lot of Muslims who are trying to import the garbage of the Muslim world into North American Islam. At the same time, we have some converts to Islam here who are trying to blend the garbage of the West into Islam as well.
Think about that for a minute. In most of our Masjids and conferences, over half of what you hear being talked about will be issues of politics overseas or the mindless promotion of sectarianism that is over a thousand years old. I'm sitting here watching the second generation out in the parking lot of the Masjid blaring pop music from their expensive cars and talking to the opposite sex while their parents are inside arguing about things that have been argued about forever. In the end, everyone goes home mad because they staked their identity on non-issues and petty sectarianism. The teens, however, have a hot date to look forward to that weekend.
This sectarianism has no place in Islam in America whether its the Shi'a/Sunni thing or the fundamentalist/modernist clash. Let me tell you something interesting. I taught in an Islamic school a few years back in Michigan. Fully a third of the students came from Arab Shi'a families, the other two-thirds were from Sunni Arab families with the odd Indo-Pak kid here and there. By themselves, these kids mixed with each other and thought they were all just Muslims. It was beautiful. The Shi'a kids didn't think they were Shi'a and the Sunni kids likewise. Everyone was a Muslim.
The second year I was there, sectarianism reared its ugly head. Some of the parents (and these were all settled immigrants who were involved) objected to the fact that a "Shi'a" was on the school board. Some of the "Shi'a" parents objected to the "Sunni" orientation of the school and to the performance of the Eclipse prayer in a certain manner. (Never mind that the Prophet's basic definition of a Muslim was believing in the message of the Shahadah, making Salat and eating Halal meat!)
You can well imagine the situation six months later. Most of the Shi'a kids, at the behest of a few parents, formed themselves into a unified block and some even refused to pray with the rest of the students at Zuhr time. Some of the Sunni kids started spreading rumors about what they thought Shi'a beliefs were and on it went. By the time it was all over, the Shi'a families pulled their kids out and opened a school of their own a year later and the Sunni families rejoiced, even as their school was plunged into chaos and financial hardship from the exodus of so many tuition-paying families. The garbage of the Muslim world, brought in the suitcases of those who came here, disillusioned a whole lot of people- for nothing. (I'm not immigrant bashing, mind you, for many immigrant Muslims I know are models of the perfect Muslim. I'm talking about specific issues here only and the few who participate in them and ruin it for the majority.)
Beyond the Shi'a/Sunni thing, however, there is a heated ideological debate going on in the majority Muslim community (the so called Sunnis). It threatens to destroy the vibrancy of the rising Muslim community and has the potential to create a wide, new gulf between Muslims as serious as the ones currently plaguing the Muslim world. This debate centers around three, powerful forces. There are the Salafees, the Sufis, and the Modernists. Most Muslims don't adhere to any of these three groups, and rather prefer to just live as good Muslims. But because the organizations, magazines, Masajid and centers are often controlled by one of these three groups, (because they're motivated by their cause to promote themselves,) it's inevitable that the regular Muslim becomes embroiled in the contentious issues and stupidity. And that's the last thing they wanted!
We all know that Islam must adapt to this environment to survive. No, I don't mean that the teachings or beliefs of Islam must change, that's an idiotic line of thought that some wealthy secularists are pushing. No, Islam must stay intact for it to be acceptable to Allah. "Adaptation" is not the same thing as "change," however. Islam "adapted" to Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco, Turkey, Bosnia and Gambia. Islam didn't change, it adapted. No one complains about that. So if Islam needs to do the same here, (adapt,) then instead of complaining that our kids love pizza and hate kabobs or can't identify our home country on a map, we must get to work and see how we can implement the Islamic lifestyle in this American context faithfully.
What the three opposing sides in the struggle for the future direction of Islam in America want is for Islam to adapt here in their specific ideological way- in the way that is acceptable to their narrow world view. The Salafee-style Muslims, who almost always are Middle-Easterners, have a conservative vision which is usually intimately tied to Arab culture and politics. They shun everything modern or Western, unless it can be used to further their cause, and they feel nervous all the time lest some point of "correct belief" is breached by some Muslim here or there.
When you read their books or magazines, you find everything they say about Islam is in terms of correct/incorrect. (Such and such is not correct belief, etc...) It is admirable, of course, to be interested in the truth, but in their approach there is no life, no love, no spirituality. It's all about legalism such as the legalism of the Jews at the time of Prophet 'Esa. Hence, the recently coined condition of "Salafee Burn-out" whereby people drop out of this movement after their heart has been completely drained of all spirituality.
For the Salafees, "Everything is Haram" seems to be their primary position of Fiqh and something is only allowed if one of their Sheikhs issues a big fatwa and says it's OK. They always take the position of most hardship for people as well. Such as saying face veils are required for all women, women should never pray in the Masjid, any type of bank account, even a non-interest bearing checking account is haram, etc... All these "fatwas" are from Al Jumu'ah magazine, one of their premier party publications. (Al Jumu'ah magazine, by the way, has a checking account in a Western bank per the admission of the editor in a private phone conversation with a friend of mine.)
In addition, their emphasis is on imitating the Prophet so closely that one's desire is to become a robot. If the Prophet wore a leather sandal, they will wear a leather sandal. If he didn't like the taste of squash, they never eat it. If he held a staff, they walk around with sticks in their hands. If he used a sword in battle, they hang swords all over their houses. If he grew up in Arabia, they hang pictures of the desert all over their houses and buy stuffed camels for their children to play with. If he wore a red cloak, they all buy red cloaks, if he said a Du'a once, they say it all day, if he used a miswak, they walk around all day with miswaks hanging from their mouths, etc...
I like the line where they say they want more than one wife because the Prophet had more than one. They say they are being a "Sunnah man" by doing it. Interestingly enough, the Prophet had only one wife until he was about 53 years old, and after that he married mostly widows and other women in need of support. So what are all these "Sunnah men" doing marrying another wife in their thirties and forties? Follow the Sunnah exactly, wait until your old, then marry a second wife.
Regarding his eating habits, the Blessed Prophet ate dates, camel milk, moistened barley, coarse bread and the like most of the time. He almost never ate meat. But all the Salafees are "kabob kings"- eating meat with almost every meal. Where's the barley? Where's the camel milk? Why do dates only come out in Ramadan? He also only took a staff regularly when he was old. I could go on and on and on. Sounds like they are "Selective Sunnah" men to me!
Indeed, they fail to distinguish between Sunnahs (both moral and behavioral) based on Islam which the Prophet promoted, and mere personal habits or the cultural conditions of the time. (Interestingly enough, the Prophet always wore a turban and told people to do likewise, but you hardly ever see the Salafees wearing turbans. Really now, is the modern-style Kufi necessarily "Islamic"? Who invented it? What type of head covering did the Prophet, peace be upon him, wear?
There is big oil money behind the Salafee groups. They are funded by the Saudis, Kuwaitis, Middle-Eastern businessmen and others. The Salafees, therefore, lean towards supporting the policies of these gulf-Arab governments and have very good ties with the corrupt religious establishments in that oil-rich region. Their main celebrities are extremely conservative Sheikhs, almost always Arabs, who come from the king-supported universities in either Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Jordan. (I hope you understand I'm not "Arab-bashing" either.) Their master is an Albanian who was raised in the Middle East whose name is, appropriately, Al Albani. He did most of his work years ago and was so audacious that he even labelled many accepted ahadith from Bukhari and Muslim as "weak" or fabricated. For the Salafees, there is Allah, the Prophet, Ibn Taymiyah and Al Albani. This is their chain of authority.
The Salafees have been reasonably good at recruiting some African Americans into their fold through the distribution of thousands of nearly free books written in their ideological style, but most native Muslims, black or white, have remained aloof, complaining of too much legalism and emphasis on ultra-correctness that tears the heart out of Iman. ("I didn't become a Muslim because I wanted to become embroiled in legal disputes and challenges all the time." is a common statement.)
Will they be successful? I don't think so. Many MSA's are controlled by Salafee minded students and the first thing they do is either exclude totally or marginalize the participation of sisters. They also drive away almost all of the Western born Muslim students, sometimes in a very shameful way. (I've seen it first hand and have had innumerable others tell me about their experiences.) When they run a Masjid, it becomes a hot-bed of Arab nationalism/culturalism. Even if their are African American Salafee recruits there, they orient them towards Arab political concerns. I really feel it is a movement that can only survive with continued immigration from the Middle East. It's not a movement that can be passed on to their children. I've met and taught the children of Salafees many times before. They are the most disillusioned about Islam of all.
The Modernists are next in our analysis, for indeed, these people are the most potent of the enemies of the Salafees. They are made up principally of settled Muslim immigrants from the Indian Sub-continent (with a few from the Arab world). No, not all Indo-Pak Muslims are modernists, mind you, just a small, very powerful segment. The modernists, who are almost always wealthy professionals, follow the Western-style secular-liberal tradition. (The infamous "American Muslim" crowd. When a person places their national citizenship in front of their Muslim designation, then watch out! The priorities are made clear.)
They were brought up in countries in which the ways of the British (and now the mythological Americans) are worshipped and idolized to this day. They are the people who are almost always in control of the suburban immigrant-dominated Masjids and Islamic schools (because only they had the money/clout to build them). What is their agenda?
In my experience, observations and travels, I seem to have identified three main goals of these modernists. They can be roughly listed as: Assimilation of Islam into the American mainstream, promoting an interpretation of Islam which is as loose and uncontroversial as modern Christianity or Judaism, and finally, curiously enough, the establishment of a class system based on status, position and a well-defined hierarchy dominated by the leader class. All three of these things are in contradiction to each other, but this fact seems to have escaped their intellectual gymnastics.
Their goal of assimilation is easy to analyze: they want to be like the Jewish community in America. That is their model and they always reference it. They have this image of the Jews as being a "prosperous" minority which is accepted in mainstream American society. The Jews, in their eyes, control the media, government and foreign policy of this nation and therefore cause American policy to be pro-Israel.
They do this with no serious backlash and no one bothers them based on their religion or ethnic group. Of course, the strengths of the Jewish community in America are well known, but what the modernists fail to realize is that the Jews have no religion. They are thinly united on a loose, ethnic affiliation and there is never any talk of prayer, morality, obedience to God or anything of the sort. As is accepted by all today, most Jews are atheists or hopelessly secular. (Inter-marriage with non-Jews, according to the few Orthodox Jews in America, is threatening to destroy even that tenuous ethnic affiliation.)
Modernists fight against communal living and never desire to challenge the validity of other religions, desiring, rather, to "live among the society" and to "dialogue" with others. Now if the modernists succeeded in getting themselves and their families assimilated in the same way the Jews are, then they would be Muslims no longer. (I have met a lot of Modernist Muslims and almost all of their children are hopelessly unIslamic.) They would be Americans of Indo-Pak heritage who are only interested in getting foreign aid dollars for their nostalgic homeland. Their spoiled, fun-loving Americanized children of course, would not continue this trend and thus their mission of foreign aid dollars for home-country X, Y or Z would dry up real fast.
Once you give up the forms and structures of Islam, once you no longer really believe that it's true, then you defeat your original purpose, and that is to stay intact as an identifiable community. If no one prays, goes to the Masjid or reads the Qur'an, then your community is reduced to iced-tea sippers who water their lawns on Friday afternoons. Then there is no community after all. The paradox is that it's the modernists who make Americans less afraid of Islam and they are also the ones who usually make the mainstream aware of our holidays and similarities with them. Go figure.
The second goal of the modernists is to dilute Islam so much that it becomes harmless and "normal" in the eyes of non-Muslims. They want an Islam where there are no Hijabs, no beards, no prohibition of interest, no judgments of right or wrong, no haram meat and certainly no moral restrictions on personal or social conduct. The modernist agenda is basically to make Islam as irrelevant and harmless as "Reform" Judaism. (Maybe they'll make a "Reform" Islam one day.)
Their favorite argument against any teaching of Islam that they don't like is saying that it's based on a "weak" Hadith or that the scholars are "divided" about the issue- so they can do as they see fit! I have seen all of these ideas promoted by modernists and I'm sure you have as well. What's the point of saying you're a Muslim if you throw everything in Islam out that you don't like? This last objective is shamelessly played out everyday in our Masjids and politically-oriented "Muslim" organizations.
What about the class system? Indo-Pak culture is very old. It spans thousands of years of civilization and has its own features and values which govern how people interact. Whereas Arab culture is usually very egalitarian, Indo-Pak culture tends to be very, very structured. I guess we shouldn't be surprised when we realize that the Hindu caste system is still alive and well in the sub-continent even as it has been for four thousand years. Of course, the Muslims also follow this caste system to one degree or another and the culture of the Saab, Saheeb, Maulana, Zamindar and Nawab has been transferred to America in the form of a hierarchy based on wealth and family status. I'm not going to go into detail about this because it's just too sickening and I'm sure you've seen enough examples to make your head spin. I just want you to think about what you've seen and why it is wrong.
The last group which seeks to have its vision of Islam prevail in America is the Sufis. Now the Sufis are a hard bunch to define because they literally run from one end of the spectrum to the other. There are "Popcorn" Sufis who are usually white (or Jewish) Americans who want to experiment with this mysterious and cool sounding thing called Sufism. There is no Islam there at all. All they do is the chanting and dancing that they think is Sufism and then they go home and do whatever immoral things they choose. Such people are spiritual drifters who may go on to Tibetan Buddhism or Yoga next.
The legitimate Sufis are those who claim allegiance to Islam and who don't go overboard with the chanting, weird mysticism or dancing. The "halal" Muslim Sufis in America are usually affiliated with mother-organizations which are based in the Muslim world. They organize themselves into Tariqas, or Orders, with a leader, known as a Sheikh- the followers being spiritual "initiates." Their primary goal is to develop love for Allah and to spread Islamic peace to other people. But in their emphasis on spirituality, they sometimes are as extreme in their particular direction as the Salafees are in the opposite direction.
They sometimes resort to singing, ritual dancing and praying for long-since dead Sheikhs in ways that look suspiciously like hero-worship. While there is nothing wrong with group dhikr or molding one's self to model the Prophet's emphasis on love and understanding, many Muslims find that their style of dress (straight out of 1001 Arabian Nights) and their emphasis on tolerance at all costs can sometimes make their methodology difficult to model. In addition, many Muslims are put off by the term, "Saints," which they apply to their ancient "Spiritual Masters." (For Allah's sake, don't use the Christian term "Saint!" It doesn't mean the same thing as "Wali" does in Arabic and misleads people!) I also find it strange that some Sufi groups, the Naqshabandis in particular, seem to wish for the return of the Ottoman empire and they venerate that dynasty as if it were a duty in Islam to do so. In their magazine, "The Muslim Magazine" they refer to one of the descendants of the last Ottoman Sultan as "Her Highness." Now what is that?
It has been noted by several contemporary writers that the Salafee approach has brought death to the Eman of the second generation while the Sufi approach has caused Eman to be reborn among the youth. But the difficulty for the youth is that the majority of them would find it very hard to dress in green turbans, flowing robes and giant beards in their high schools and colleges. If only we could take half a Salafee with their correctness and half a Sufi with their spirituality (and add a dash of modernist adaptability) and put them together in one body, then we would have the perfect Muslim!
It's truly amazing when you really take a close look at each side. Each one of them has a serious defect which they are blinded to, but each also has a strength that needs to be present. The end result is that each side loses its followers as fast as they gain them. The Salafees drop out from spiritual draining, the Sufis drop away from to much fruitiness and the Modernists leave no second generation of believers behind them. Meanwhile, the masses of the Muslims are waiting for direction so that we can get down to the business of living Islam and building a viable, self-perpetuating community in America.
How do these three very different trends interact in America? Well, the modernists are the enemies of both the Salafees and Sufis, for obvious reasons, and tend to shun both, preferring to participate in "bridge-building" with non-Muslims. So for now, let's discuss the current, fierce battle between the Salafees and Sufis. Its not a new one. In fact, this battle has been raging in the Muslim world for over a thousand years. The Salafees quote their Ibn Taymeeyahs while the Sufis quote their Abdul Qaadir Jilanis.
Just what is this battle about? Basically it comes down to the difference between spiritual content and legal exactness. There are rules in Islam but don't forget that Islam is more than rules. The tragic thing is, as was outlined earlier, the two most vocal elements from among the Sufis and Salafees go to extremes. The most radical Sufis, in the history of Islam, actually began to incorporate Saint-worship, wine-drinking, dancing and hokey-mysticism into their Islam, while the most radical Salafees, in the history of Islam, actually began to suppress any expression of joy or spiritual satisfaction in Islam, equating it with unreliable emotion or suspicious beliefs. In addition, their suppression of women's Islamic rights is well-known. (The Salafees cheer the actions of the Taliban, and even fund them, for example.)
Now it must be pointed out that most Sufis and Salafees do not go to the fullest extreme, though many muddle around the edges, I'm talking about the leadership, the official ideology and the methods and practices of the loudest proponents of each pole. This same battle goes on here in America today. There are super-Sufis who talk about love ad nauseam and there are Salafee Fundamentalists who talk about punishments and legal rules so much that they make even you scared of and/or tired of Islam.
In the end, the interaction and friction caused thereby from each group can leave us everyday Muslims confused. Where do we go for reliable Islamic teachings? How can we cause our love of Allah to grow? How do I adapt Islam to America and make my neighbors understand me? These are the questions we ask everyday. When we see the various groups at each other's throats we get doubly confused. Whither Islam?
In this article I have tried to present a brief sketch of the main ideological elements which are battling for the future direction of Islam in America today. In the process I've probably succeeded in getting everyone mad at me, but my heart has been crying out to make these observations for some time now. (Remember, a Muslim is supposed to love getting ihtisaab, even if they don't agree with it.) As we have seen, the state of Islam in the international Muslim world is that of an unconscious invalid, whereas it is becoming more vibrant in the West.
Now, in the same way that American Christians have given up trying to convert Americans to Christianity and are now sending their missionaries and their billions to convert the illiterate natives of the third world, Muslim activists have given up on the Muslim world and have migrated to safer waters in the West where they can bother and harass Muslims at will in the pursuit of their own particular visions. This is the condition of the battlefield for the soul of Islam. I just hope we can keep at least a few of the youth safe from both atheistic secularism and also from the overpowering influence of these three groups so that there will be some normal, functioning Muslims to carry the torch of the Blessed Prophet's Islam into the future.
My advice to you, my Muslim brothers and sisters, is to remember that Islam is a balanced way of life, so seek balance by learning Islam from your own reading of the Qur'an and Hadith and don't let your hearts be swayed by those pulling you to an extreme pole. Join with like-minded people locally and form your own study groups, social networks and functions. You'd be surprised to learn that there is a whole invisible network of Muslims who have nothing to do with their local Masjids and organizations but who do Islamic activities all the time from different people's homes and rented facilities.
You can do the same in your area if your local Masjid "leadership" is beyond redemption. If you live in one of those rare communities where the Masjid and school are fine then say alhumdulillah and get Muslims to live around the Masjid. Whatever your situation, let's get to work putting Islam into practice! More on this in a future article.


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[Ibn Rushd]

Thank you CroM for the list of articles that get banned. I read one on controversy of Islamic origins (which we are all interested in).

As to Yahiya Emerick, he wrote The Complete Idiot's Guide to Islam and I can say that it was a waste of $30CDN.